webfist

webfist copied to clipboard

WebFist implements WebFinger delegation for providers who don't support WebFinger natively.

It takes advantage of the fact that all major providers DKIM-sign their outgoing emails.

So if you have a Gmail, Facebook, Yahoo, Outlook, or whatever account, you can email a server in the WebFist pool of servers, the server will DKIM-verify it, parse it for a WebFinger delegation command, and then encrypt your original email (with your email address as the key) and then replicate the encrypted data across the network of WebFist servers.

Each WebFist node is then also a WebFinger server, so you can do WebFinger lookups on gmail or facebook email addresses.

Consider it a WebFinger fallback.

One node is currently running at http://webfist.org/

The plan is to have a big pool of WebFist servers, like NTP pools.

Written by Brad Fitzpatrick and Brett Slatkin at IndieWebCamp in Portland on 2013-06-23.

STATUS: quick hack, made while racing against demo time. It works, but could use some polish.